Category Archives: Threat-Centric

Watching Malware Evolve with TigerTrax

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Recently, I have been spending a lot of my time working with TigerTrax, our intelligence platform, and using it to further my research into emerging threats. One of the most interesting areas has been using to track and trace the fits and starts of malware evolution using social media data and the web.

TigerTrax is really good at finding and analyzing the data for trends. The visualizations make spotting emerging patterns and even outliers very easy. For example, we noticed a trend around side loading of malware payloads recently. Not an overwhelming trend across all of malware, but associated with a specific group of verticals being targeted. This emerged easily from the graph data and analytics engines. We were able to use that information to inform our customers in that space and increase their capabilities in detection and incident response.

We have only just begun to find the deeper use cases for TigerTrax, but it is already changing the way MSI does work, even the core work of assessments. For example, with a small window of lead time, we can generate specific pattern analysis and cases to support findings in risk assessments, vulnerability and pen-testing work. The engines can keep our scenarios refreshed, keep us up to date with the latest attack vectors and exploits being used in the wild.

All in all, TigerTrax has given us a larger view of infosec, and watching malware evolve through its lens has become an interesting part of what we do at MSI. We look forward to the day when we can discuss more publicly what we are doing with TigerTrax and some of the findings we are generating, but for now, just know that the platform is being used in a myriad of ways, and that new developments are occurring on a daily basis. If you’d like to discuss what TigerTrax can do for your organization, give us a call. We’d be happy to sit down for a briefing with your team.

Let’s Get Proactive with End User Security

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Where do most of the threats to the security of our IT systems lurk? The Internet, of course! Powerful malicious software apps are all over the Net, like website land mines, just waiting to explode into your computer if you touch them. And how about accessing social networks from your company work station? Do you really think that content on these sites is secured and only available to those you chose to see it? If so, then I’m sorry to disillusion you.

So why do most concerns still let their employees casually access and surf the Web from their business systems? Especially in the present when most everyone has a smart phone or pad with them at all times? Businesses should embrace this situation and use it to their advantage. Why not set up an employee wireless network with all the appropriate security measures in place just for Internet access? (This network should be totally separate from business networks and not accessible by business computers). It’s not expensive or difficult to administer and maintain a network like this, and employees could access websites to their hearts content (on their off time of course). And for those employees that are without a smart phone (an ever dwindling few), you could stand up a few kiosk computers that they could access using their employee wireless network password.

As for employees that need Internet access to perform their work duties, you should lock their access down tight. The best thing to do is to add needed websites to a white list and only allow those employees with a business need to access only those websites that are necessary and no others. Black listing and web filtering are partially effective, but they don’t really work well enough. I can’t tell you how often we have seen such filters in place at businesses that we assess that prevent access to gaming and porn sites, but still allow access to traps like known malicious websites in foreign countries! Go figure.

And don’t forget to properly segment your business networks. Users should only be allowed access to those network resources that they need for business purposes. Users in workstation space should never be allowed to “see” into server space. Preventing this will go a long way in curtailing attacks from the other big danger – the malicious insider. 

Thanks to John Davis for writing this post.

OpenSSL Problem is HUGE – PAY ATTENTION

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If you use OpenSSL anywhere, or use a product that does (and that’s a LOT of products), you need to understand that a critical vulnerability has been released, along with a variety of tools and exploit code to take advantage of the issue.

The attack allows an attacker to remotely tamper with OpenSSL implementations to dump PLAIN TEXT secrets, passwords, encryption keys, certificates, etc. They can then use this information against you.

You can read more about the vulnerability itself here. 

THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE. Literally, and without exaggeration, the early estimates on this issue are that 90%+ of major web sites and software packages using OpenSSL as a base are vulnerable. This includes HTTPS implementations, many mail server implementations, chat systems, ICS/SCADA devices, SSL VPNs, many embedded devices, etc. The lifetime of this issue is likely to be long and miserable.

Those things that can be patched and upgraded should be done as quickly as possible. Vendors are working on patching their implementations and products, so a lot of updates and patches will be forthcoming in the next few days to weeks. For many sites, patching has already begun, and you might notice a lot of new certificates for sites around the web.

Our best advice at this point is to patch your stuff as quickly as possible. It is also advisable to change any passwords, certificates or credentials that may have been impacted – including on personal sites like banking, forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If you aren’t using unique passwords for every site along with a password vault, now is the time to step up. Additionally, this is a good time to implement or enable multi-factor authentication for all accounts where it is possible. These steps will help minimize future attacks and compromises, including fall out from this vulnerability.

Please, socialize this message. All Internet users need to be aware of the problem and the mitigations needed, even for personal safety online.

As always, thanks for reading, and if you have any questions about the issues, please let us know. We are here to help!

Podcast Release: Threats From the Net Feb 2014

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The Kluniac is back! This month, the ElderGeek covers more emerging issues in infosec that came calling in February. 

Give it a listen, and touch base with him on Twitter (@pophop) to tell him what you’d like to hear on upcoming episodes. He loves the chatter and really digs listener feedback.

You can get this month’s episode by clicking here.

Learn More About TigerTrax Services in Our Webinar

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After the powerful launch of TigerTrax last week, we have put together a webinar for those folks looking to learn more about our TigerTrax™ services and offerings. If you want to hear more about social media code of conduct monitoring, passive analysis and assessments, investigation/forensics and threat intelligence enabled by the new platform, please RSVP.

Our webinar will cover why we built TigerTrax, what it does and how it can help you organization. We will discuss real life engagements using the TigerTrax platform across a variety of verticals and looking at social, technological and trust issues. From data mining threat actors to researching supply chain business partners and from helping pro-sports players defend themselves against accusations to monitoring social media content of key executives, the capabilities and examples are wide ranging and deeply compelling.

Register for the webinar by clicking here. Our team will get you registered and on the way to leveraging a new, exciting, powerful tool in understanding and managing reputational risk on a global scale.

The webinar will be held Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 3 PM Eastern time. Please RSVP for an invitation. Spots are limited, so please RSVP early.

As always, thanks for reading. And, if you would prefer a private briefing or discussion about TigerTrax, give us a call at (614) 351-1237 x206 and we will get a specialist together with you to help identify how MSI can help your organization.

MSI Announces TigerTrax Reputational Threat Services

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TigerTrax™ is MSI’s proprietary platform for gathering and analyzing data from the social media sphere and the overall web. This sophisticated platform, originally developed for threat intelligence purposes, provides the team with a unique capability to rapidly and effectively monitor the world’s data streams for potential points of interest.

 

The uses of the capability include social media code of conduct monitoring, rapid “deep dive” content gathering and analysis, social media investigations & forensics, organizational monitoring/research/profiling and, of course, threat intelligence.

 

The system is modular in nature, which allows MSI to create a number of “on demand” and managed services around the platform. Today the platform is in use in some of the following ways:

  • Sports teams are using the services to monitor professional athletes for potential code of conduct and brand damaging behaviors
  • Sports teams are also using the forensics aspects of the service to help defend their athletes against false behavior-related claims
  • Additionally, sports teams have begun to use the service for reputational analysis around trades/drafts, etc.
  • Financial organizations are using the service to monitor social media content for signs of illicit behavior or potential legal/regulatory violations
  • Talent agencies are monitoring their talent pools for content that could impact their public brands
  • Law firms are leveraging the service to identify potential issues with a given case and for investigation/forensics
  • Companies have begun to depend on the service for content monitoring during mergers and acquisitions activities, including quiet period monitoring and pre-offer intelligence
  • Many, many more uses of the platform are emerging every day

 If your organization has a need to understand or monitor the social media sphere and deep web content around an issue, a reputational concern or a code of conduct, discuss how TigerTrax from MSI can help meet your needs with an account executive today.

 

At a glance call outs:

  • Social media investigation/forensics and monitoring services
  • Customized to your specific concerns or code of conduct
  • Can provide deep dive background information or ongoing monitoring
  • Actionable reporting with direct support from MSI Analysts
  • Several pricing plans available

Key Differentiators:

  • Powerful, customizable, proprietary platform
  • Automated engines, bleeding edge analytics & human analysts to provide valuable insights
  • No web portal to learn or analytics software to configure and maintain
  • No heavy lifting on customers, MSI does the hard work, you get the results
  • Flexible reporting to meet your business needs

HoneyPoint IP Protection Methodology

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Here’s another use case scenario for HoneyPoint Security Server. This time, we show the methodology we use to scope a HoneyPoint implementation around protecting a specific set of Intellectual Property (IP). 

If you would like an in-depth discussion of our process or our capability, please feel free to reach out to us and schedule a call with our team. No commitment and no hard sale, guaranteed.

If the graphic below is blurry on your device, you can download a PDF version here.

HP_IPProtection

HoneyPoint Trojans Overview

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Here’s another quick overview graphic of how HoneyPoint Trojans work. We have been using these techniques since around 2008 and they are very powerful. 

We have incorporated them into phishing exercises, piracy studies, incident response, intrusion detection, intelligence gathering, marketing analysis and even privacy research. To hear more about HoneyPoint Trojans, give us a call.

If the graphic below is blurry on your device, you can download a PDF version here.

HPTrojanOverview

HoneyPoint in a Point of Sale Network

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We have been getting a LOT of questions lately about how HoneyPoint Security Server (HPSS) fits into a Point of Sale (POS) network.

To make it pretty easy and as a high level overview, below is a use case diagram we use to discuss the solution. If you would like a walkthrough of our technology, or to discuss how it might fit into your specific use cases, please let us know.

As always, thanks for reading and for partnering with MicroSolved, Inc.

PS – If the graphic below is difficult to read on your device, you can grab a PDF version here.

HP POSNetworks

Touchdown Task for January: Audit Your News Feeds

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This month, our suggested Touchdown Task is for the security team to do an “audit” of their news/RSS feeds and the other mechanisms by which you get advisories, patch and upgrade alerts, breakout information and details about emerging threats.

Since RSS feeds and account names and such can change, it’s a good idea to review these sources occasionally. Are the feeds you depend on timely and accurate? Have you added new technology to your organization since you last reviewed your advisory feeds? Maybe you might need to add a vendor or regulator feed.

Have a discussion with all of your team members and understand who monitors what. Make sure you have good cross communication, but aren’t struggling with a lot of duplicated efforts.

Once you get your news and threat feeds in order, trace how the information is shared and make sure it is getting to the system and network admins who might need it. Do you have the right people getting the right information? If not, adjust. 

Most teams can do this review in less than an hour. So focus, communicate and create a robust way to handle the flow of information.

As always, thanks for reading and stay safe out there!